2024-04-17 14:45:40
Ukraine’s grain harvest is likely to fall to around 52 million metric tons this year from 58 million tons in 2023, mostly due to expected smaller planted area, Reuters reported, citing its first official forecast from the Agriculture Ministry of country for the 2024 harvest.
The ministry said last month that the area sown to maize was likely to fall 4.5 percent to 3.863 million hectares this year from 4.043 million in 2023.
Farmers can also reduce planted areas for spring wheat and sunflowers, but are advised to increase them for spring barley and soybeans.
The ministry’s crop forecast shows the country could harvest 27 million tonnes of maize, 19 million tonnes of wheat and 5 million tonnes of barley this year.
Ukraine has not released the final results of the 2023 harvest. The latest figures put the wheat harvest at around 22.5 million tonnes, with farms also harvesting 5.9 million tonnes of barley and 28.2 million tonnes of maize.
According to the ministry, farmers may harvest 4 million tons of rapeseed, 12.5 million tons of sunflower seeds and 5.2 million tons of soybeans this year.
The agency added that farmers could sharply increase the area planted to soybeans this year to 2.199 million hectares from 1.780 million in 2023, as it was almost the only profitable crop in 2023.
Ukraine was the largest producer and exporter of sunflower oil in the world. Declining sunflower prices, however, could force producers to cut sunflower acreage to 5.292 million hectares from 5.307 million in 2023, the data showed.
The country harvested 4 million tons of rapeseed, 4.8 million tons of soybeans and 12 million tons of sunflower seeds in 2023, BTA reports.
Ukraine’s grain traders union UGA said last month that the combined 2024 grain and oilseed harvest was likely to shrink to 76.1 million tonnes from 82.6 million last year – well below the 107 million tonnes harvested before Russia invasion.
The harvest could include 26.3 million tons of corn, 20 million tons of wheat and 13.7 million tons of sunflower seeds, the union added.